Dr KARL SHUKER

Zoologist, media consultant, and science writer, Dr Karl Shuker is also one of the best known cryptozoologists in the world. Author of such seminal works as Mystery Cats of the World (1989), The Lost Ark: New and Rediscovered Animals of the 20th Century (1993; greatly expanded in 2012 as The Encyclopaedia of New and Rediscovered Animals), In Search of Prehistoric Survivors (1995), The Unexplained (1996), Mysteries of Planet Earth (1999), The Beasts That Hide From Man (2003), and more recently Extraordinary Animals Revisited (2007), Dr Shuker's Casebook (2008), Karl Shuker's Alien Zoo: From the Pages of Fortean Times (2010), Cats of Magic, Mythology, and Mystery (2012), Mirabilis: A Carnival of Cryptozoology and Unnatural History (2013), Dragons in Zoology, Cryptozoology, and Culture (2013), A Manifestation of Monsters (2015), Here's Nessie! (2016), and what is already considered to be his magnum opus, Still In Search Of Prehistoric Survivors (2016), his many fans have been badgering him to join the blogosphere for years. The CFZ Blog Network is proud to have finally persuaded him to do so.

One of my
favourite races of being in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings
trilogy are those animate trees known as ents, but I always assumed that they
were totally fictitious. Thanks to some fascinating if thoroughly perplexing
information received by me recently, however, I'm no longer quite so sure!

On 16 August
2016, Portuguese correspondent Tiago Cardoso kindly brought to my attention and
also translated into English for me a short item from Vanessa Fidalgo's book Seres
Mágicos em Portugal [Magic Beings in Portugal], published in 2014,
but which I have not previously seen mentioned in any English-language
publication. The item concerns a mystifying being known locally as the
homen-galho or twig man, and here it is:

I will tell a story that
was told to me by my grandfather, about a creature that lives in the forest
near the village of Pessegueiro, in northern Portugal.

According to my
grandfather, when he was a young man, that is, about 40 years ago, during an
autumn night there in the village of Pessegueiro a group of friends of which he
was part spotted a naked creature that moved as a man (i.e. on two legs), but
the head appeared to bear tree twigs. It was exceptionally tall and thin. When
it noticed them, the creature was perplexed to see them, a situation which gave
the impression that its eyes were human, but also allowed them to see that it
had something that looked like moss on its face. My grandfather and his friends
chased the creature, entering into the forest, throwing stones at it, but when
they entered the densest areas of the grove, they lost sight of it.

Then, they heard
animal-like noises, and dragging of vegetation, which, in the exact words of my
grandfather: "stopped everything, until the animals became afraid and
fled".

At that moment, they also
fled, in panic, to the village cafe, where they told what had happened.
Obviously at that time no one believed their account, but, over the years, people
here have heard more accounts of sightings of this creature. It seems that the
descriptions were continuing until six years ago.

It was six years ago when
it was last reported, by a group of young people...They were in the street when
they heard a strange noise, similar to the noises made by the dragging of
something very heavy. They came to see what was there, and that was when one of
them saw a very thin, strange figure, and he exclaimed: "Look that man,
he looks like a twig!".

Then, they all remarked
about the man having tree-trunk-like structures on its head, and they
associated this immediately with the description that they had heard from old
men. Like the group containing my grandfather, they ran to the nearest cafe to
find people and to claim that they had seen the 'twig man'.

At first, no one
understood what they were talking about, but after a more detailed explanation
everyone ran to the place of their sighting, but there was no longer anything
there. Only a total silence.

Since that day, no 'forest
creature' or 'twig man' has been seen, but in the village the story never died
and everybody knows that in the forest exists something that is not human.

When I first
read this, I wondered about wild men or woodwose, as such entities have been
reported in Spain right into modern times, but the repeated claims that
Portugal's twig man has tree-like twigs or trunks projecting from its head are
certainly very difficult to explain via this identity. Having said that, moss
on its face is less problematic, so might the twigs simply be vegetation caught
up in the hair on the creature's head?

Yet even if this
is so, its extreme thinness and tallness does not recall wild man reports, in
which their dimensions tend to be little different from those of modern,
civilised humans.

Conversely, what
the twig man does closely resemble is the LOTR ent, typified by the
stately Treebeard, and who knows, perhaps this fictitious yet famous entity has
indeed directly inspired and coloured the twig man reports. Yet it seems
unlikely that such a blatantly invented creature as an animate tree would do this.
So at present, the Portuguese twig man is a notable enigma - a legend come to
life, or even a fictional entity made factual.

If any ShukerNature
reader knows anything about the twig man, I’d love to hear from you. Meanwhile,
my thanks to Tiago Cardoso for alerting me to this incongruous Iberian.

IN ENGLISHHello, Pedro! It was me I made known to Dr. Karl Shuker this strange creature. Its description is in SERES MÁGICOS EM PORTUGAL, written by CORREIO DA MANHÃ journalist Vanessa Fidalgo (at level of Portuguese folklore creatures, this book and BESTIÁRIO TRADIOCIONAL PORTUGUÊS*, of EDIÇÕES ESCAFANDRO, are quite recommendable in my opinion). :DAt my request, actual FÓRUM PORTUGAL PARANORMAL opened a topic on the subject (link above), but unfortunately they have written everything... Less of the creature concerned! -.-'

* Newly published book, aimed at both children and adults, about more or less 40 Portuguese folklore creatures

IN ENGLISHYes, Pedro, you can, for ex., send an email to Dr. Karl Shuker to tell about these cases. I inform you right away that Dr. Shuker is a nice and accessible person, and in principle he will respond you. ;)As for your story about the giant bat, I have a theory: it was a flying fox that, for some reason, came out of any captivity - I think this happened a few years ago near Torres Vedras (Central Portugal). B|

I have a very interesting story told by an 83 year old lady who told my grandmother and then me. This 83-year-old lady, when she was five years old when she was grezing a flock of sheep with her 7- or 8-year-old sister in a remote area in the Serra da Estrela,Portugal spotted two naked men speaking a totally strange language, in the next day, they follow where the mans went. They were accompanied by their star-dog and only the 5-year-old girl wanted to go there, the 7-year-old was constantly asking to go back, when they reached the cave she said she sniffed fire from inside the cave, she tried to go further inside, but the dog did not let her and growld at her, so they went back home. After some time, the girls told this story to their father, he was very annoyed with them and forbade them to go to that area anymore. The father said that he already knew of the existence of these people and said that they were the original peoples who survived in a few numbers and still living as primitive state, he said that they were only half a dozen individuals. According to my grandmother, the woman seemed to be very credible and swore by all that was true. If it is true, the 83-year-old woman would have 5 years in 1939, which means that in the late 1930s wild people were still living in Portugal.

IN ENGLISHWow!! This report is fantastic!! Prehistoric tribes living in the Serra da Estrela up to the first half of the 20th century?!? Unbelievable!!! :OBut I have a theory that these wild people was Gypsies: these in Portugal until a few decades ago were for the most part, at least, semi-nomads, spending large periods of time outside the localities, and their habits of life were (and still are, truth be told!) so different from those of the general population that they saw them as wild, primitive people; in addition, the «totally strange language» could be a Gypsy dialect. ;)But maybe those people was a community of foreigners who settled in the middle of nature in the Serra da Estrela a while ago, and the local population saw them as wild people (lol)! :P

IN ENGLISHWow!! This report is fantastic!! Prehistoric tribes living in the Serra da Estrela up to the first half of the 20th century?!? Unbelievable!!! :OBut I have a theory that these wild people was Gypsies: these in Portugal until a few decades ago were for the most part, at least, semi-nomads, spending large periods of time outside the localities, and their habits of life were (and still are, truth be told!) so different from those of the general population that they saw them as wild, primitive people; in addition, the «totally strange language» could be a Gypsy dialect. ;)But maybe those people was a community of foreigners who settled in the middle of nature in the Serra da Estrela a while ago, and the local population saw them as wild people (lol)! :P

Yes, possible it may be gypsies or foreigners as you said, it is difficult for prehistoric peoples to last until the 1930s and to continue to live in the same ways in Portugal. But even so, for these gypsies or strangers to be living in that primitive state, to the point of making campfires and living in caves like real savages, it is very strange. I think the old woman gave the exact location of the events to my grandmother, if she can get the location, it would be best to make an expedition to the place to see if there is any trace, maybe one day. But being communities of modern people or not, no doubt that even in the second half of the twentieth century it is a rarity

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